Coup in the Bayou: New Governor Jindal Promises Change in Louisiana

Coup in the Bayou: New Governor Jindal Promises Change in Louisiana

Article excerpt

Little is ordinary about Louisiana's new governor, Piyush "Bobby"
Jindal. He's the nation's youngest governor, the first whose parents
are from India, and his state's first nonwhite chief executive since
Reconstruction. A convert from Hinduism to Catholicism, he likes
fast food and rises early - like 3 a.m. - to lift weights.

But all that pales in comparison to the extraordinary task he's
promised to undertake: cleaning up a state government widely
considered one of the most corruption-prone in America. Perhaps
equally extraordinary: Some political observers say he can do it.
Governor Jindal was inaugurated here in Baton Rouge Monday amid the
booms of a 19-cannon salute and a children's choir singing "The
Crawdad Song."

"We've had this sort of political revolution before," says Wayne
Parent, a political scientist at Louisiana State University here in
Baton Rouge. "Louisiana is wellknown for dramatically throwing
someone out and dramatically throwing other people in, but there's
something different in Jindal - not in the person, but the
situation." In a word, the aftermath of hurricane Katrina has shaken
Louisiana politics to its core.

With government flaws exposed by the 2005 storm, "the stars are
now aligning" for deep reforms in a state infamous for having more
imprisoned politicians per capita than any other, Jindal says.

"After years of scandals and jokes, it's almost become a self-
fulfilling prophecy that there was this Louisiana way. Now, people
are optimistic that we can actually do something about it," he adds.

Jindal won all but four parishes

Jindal used that message to win 60 of the state's 64 parishes -
the biggest margin by a nonincumbent in Louisiana history.

"The storms changed the psyche of Louisiana voters and people,
because they saw the consequences of corruption," he says. "A lot of
the institutions that weren't working before the storm have been
damaged, and it's now up to the state to decide how to rebuild, or
whether to rebuild, and how to provide those services. No one is
arguing the storm was a good thing, but out of that destruction
there is a choice about how we rebuild."

Jindal has some advantages over previous reformers. He inherits
the largest class of freshman legislators in state history and a $2
billion budget surplus.

Jindal has a "powerful mandate," says Michael Kurtz, a retired
history professor in Hammond, La. "He's a fresh face, kind of a do-
gooder type.... He's a whiz kid."

Jindal plans to call two special legislative sessions soon: One
to implement ethics reform to curb the influence of lobbyists in
Baton Rouge; the second to reform the state's tax structure, which
critics call regressive because it's focused on sales taxes.
Louisianans see both as crucial to turning around the fortunes of
the state.

Outsiders may take a lot of convincing, however.

When Jindal met with President Bush after his election in
October, Bush said, "So, Bobby, are we going to able to send money
down there to rebuild without it ending up in somebody's pocket? …